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I know I just posted earlier today about crossing off sky-diving from my bucket-list, but I’ve got another completed item to report. Today was my very last work-out from my New Rules of Lifting for Women.

This is a big deal for me. I’ve been working through the book’s program since early August 2012. That’s about 8 months! I’ve come a long way since stepping into that squat-rack for the first time, and I feel like I got some very good results from the book/program. The final phase (“the final cut”) was brutal… high reps, supet-sets with only 30 seconds of rest between sets… I wanted to die every time. But I got through it!

So now what? Well first I’m going to take at least 1 week off from weights… possibly 2 weeks. I plan to try out a TRX class at my gym, and I’ve got a groupon for pole dance classes I also plan to redeem this week. Weights are great and I plan to keep strength-training in my fitness regimen…but I could use a little break. I still plan to run/swim as normal during my 1-2 week break from weights.

I do well with programs, so I plan to start another as I continue on. I have New Rules of Lifting for Abs in electronic format and thought about doing that next… but today I received Warrior Cardio in the mail, which I had actually intended to take on next.

Alright I’ma be real wit you: the book fucking scares me. I flipped through and looked at the work-outs… they talk about “hurricanes” and shit. I mean, I knew this program was probably going to be intense since it’s for warriors and all… but this program seriously intimidates me. Upon flipping through, it felt like a program that was geared towards males/MMA fighters or something.

I always get intimidated by change though… and whenever I have to learn new moves I get nervous about doing them at the gym (where everyone can watch me try to figure out my own work-outs).

I don’t know. I guess I’m trying to decide which program I will proceed forward with. But finishing my New Rules of Lifting for Women feels GREAT. I’m proud!

It’s taken me a week to make this post, but here it finally is: my post-5k write-up!

Last weekend (Saturday March 16, 2013), I ran my first 5k: the St. Paddy’s Day Dash Down Greenville in Dallas. I was excited to sport my super festive, hand-made tutu. I even took a personal day the day before so I could stay home and make it! Well that wasn’t the only reason… I felt like I needed a personal day to just relax and get some things done.

By the way, if you need directions on how to make a running tutu, I used this one. Super easy.. and pretty fun. But word to the wise: if you’re using tulle that has glitter in it (cus who the fuck doesn’t want to sparkle?), the glitter WILL get EVERYWHERE. And the glitter will ALSO ruin your brand new compression shorts that you’re wearing under said tutu. JUST SAYING.

Back to the 5k. The race started at 8 AM (well, not really… that’s just when it was scheduled to start), and registration began at 7 AM. I had planned to pick-up my race packet the day before, but then I learned that it was already too late and I’d have to pick it up before the race. Whoopsies.

With the goal to arrive around 7 AM for registration, I got up at 5:30 AM so I could eat a yummy breakfast of greek yogurt + frozen berries + flax meal, and get myself ready.

My mom came with me to the 5k. I wasn’t running it with anyone, and I appreciated having someone with me for my first race to hang out with. I know my mom liked showing her support, and I know she’s proud of me. I definitely won’t drag her to any more races though!

We left the house around 6:15 to catch the light rail train that went to the event. No way in HELL was I going to deal with driving/parking in that area. I am so glad we took the mass trans option of getting there. It seemed to be a very popular choice… the train was PACKED full of people going to the 5k.

We got to the station of the event and trekked over to the registration/event site. I got my bib (and felt sooooo official). We had plenty of time to just stand around and chill for a while… eventually time grew close to the start of the race so I went to go stand in the assembly of other runners while my mom went off and did… I have no idea what.

I didn’t really talk to any of the other runners around me… nobody was particularly talkative. I was kind of nervous before the race started… I guess I just didn’t know what to expect. I had my music with me, but had realized on the way to the race that I accidentally left the mp3 player on and connected to my computer all night (while the computer was on standby), resulting in a dead mp3 player. I was pretty pissed about having to run without my music, but to to be honest… I’m glad I didn’t have it on during the actual run. It was cool to just hear everyone around me — other runners breathing hard, the jingle-jangle of crazy outfit components, and the cheers of people watching from the sidelines. I think I’ll leave my mp3 player at home for future 5ks.

The experience of the run was overall good. There was more up-hill than I’m used to, so that made it a little difficult. But having a huge group of people with you, also running the same course, made it an enjoyable experience.

My time ended up being 32:51 according to my chip. I don’t think that’s too bad, considering how crowded the run was (which slows you down in the beginning especially), and the up-hill parts.

Overall, my first 5k was pretty good! I plan to run more in the future. I celebrated with a burrito from Chipotle, and a 3 hour nap. Both were GLORIOUS.